{"@context":{"rdf":"http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#","rdfs":"http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#","owl":"http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#","foaf":"http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/","dc":"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/","dct":"http://purl.org/dc/terms/","sioc":"http://rdfs.org/sioc/types#","blog":"http://vocab.amy.so/blog#","as":"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#","mf2":"http://microformats.org/profile/","ldp":"http://www.w3.org/ns/ldp#","solid":"http://www.w3.org/ns/solid#","view":"https://terms.rhiaro.co.uk/view#","asext":"https://terms.rhiaro.co.uk/as#","dbp":"http://dbpedia.org/property/","geo":"http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#","doap":"http://usefulinc.com/ns/doap#","time":"http://www.w3.org/2006/time#"},"@graph":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2015/05/falls-lakes-feet","@type":"as:Article","blog:tmpcontent":"# Falls, lakes, and my feet hurt\r\n\r\nLast night I arrived in Korenica (the bus showed up 35 minutes late; 84 kuna, somehow arrived on time 2 hours later, really spectacular mountain scenery), and successfully navigated to Falling Lakes hostel. I thought Tchaikovsky in Split was the best, but Falling Lakes is even nicer. Croatia could really teach the world a thing or two about how to do hostels. I was greeted by Irena, who helped me figure out buses and gave me a ton of advice about how to explore Plitvice. The hostel has a lovely kitchen, plus fresh herbs in the garden, so I immediately went to Konzum to get things I could cook. The hostel is so nice and I was dreading the rush of picking up my rucksack and catchign the bus to Zagreb after walking all day. Then suddenly I realised I could just book another night in Korenica and go to Zagreb in the morning. My host in Zagreb was happy with the change of plan, and suddenly that was a weight off.\r\n\r\nI didn't get up quite as early as I'd planned, but still early enough that I didn't want to wait for the official (35 kuna) hostel ride to Plitvice. It's about a 15 minute drive, and the highway is not safe to walk on, with no footpaths, sometimes steep banks, many trucks and everyone going really fast. But I hadn't even made it out of Korenica before I was picked up by a middle aged couple from Zagreb who were very interested in all of my travel. They dropped me at Gate 1 at 0900, which threw off my well thought out agenda that began at Gate 2.\r\n\r\nEntrance to the park is 80 kuna with a student card, and the ticket includes one boat ride and one mini-bus-thing ride. Maps are 20 kuna, but fortunately Irena gave me one at the hostel. I did some dynamic replanning, figured there was no way I wasn't going to have to cover a stretch twice if I wanted to leave from Gate 2, and headed for the boat. This was supposed to be the last thing, and I considered walking the length of the lake and getting the boat for the repeat of that later, but then it arrived, so I hopped on. I'm *really* glad I did, because when I went past again later there were three boats worth of people waiting. That took me to near Gate 2, and the start of the main bit of world-famous multi-tiered waterfalls. I followed the path.\r\n\r\nI could have done with learning a few Japanese phrases, like \"if you must walk this slowly at least stop zigzagging\", \"this walkway is too narrow for you to stop and look at every little thing\" and \"put that selfie stick away you're going to have someone's eye out\". There were a lot of elderly Japanese tourists who walked very slowly and had no regard for the high risk of sending people flying into the waterfalls when they stopped suddenly and started brandishing cameras. Sigh.\r\n\r\nThe waterfalls were impressive and everything, but I had a bit of human overload. Not just the tourists (I know they were all there for the same reason I was), but the work that had gone into making the surroundings traverseable. The walkways were all wooden, and very tasteful; often stretching across whole lakes, low to the water, or steps directly above a waterfall so you were always really close.\r\n\r\n![be gone, walkway](https://rhiaro.co.uk/photos/1505croatia/waterfallsteps.jpg)\r\n\r\nI couldn't help wondering what this place would be like without the intervention. How many of the waterfalls and streams were actually there as a result of some footpath sculpting? I enjoyed more when the walkways were flooded and the water was trying to take back its space.\r\n\r\n![be gone, walkway](https://rhiaro.co.uk/photos/1505croatia/flood.jpg)\r\n\r\nFollowing Irena's advice, I took a less-trodden trail, from point 1 to point 3 (purple on the map) which led deeper into the woods of the park, away from the main area. I'd have loved to go via point 2, which goes way into the park through small settlements that are still occupied, but I didn't think I had time for the full 24km. I was soon deep in peaceful woods, and saw only two other hikers the whole time. That's more like it. I started to recharge. The trail was well-marked with little read dots on trees, so I could drift. After the intial excitement of interesting mushrooms and rocks, and dappled sunlight, the woods were pretty samey. I love the woods, and it gave me lots of thinking time. I was hankering to work on indieweb and socialwg stuff.\r\n\r\nThe route took me back to the park, and in a lot less time than I expected. I was back at the Big Waterfall, not far from where I started, at 1430. This time I walked around the eastmost side of the lake, close to the water, to Gate 2. That didn't take long either, and I didn't feel I could just go back so early. I sat for a bit, and then wandered south. I decided to see how far I could get in the direction of Korenica without going back to the highway. Technically the park goes all the way, but I had no terrain information. I ploughed on over a definitely-off-track hill. The ground was leaves and squish and the trees were close and I had to fight through them. The ground though! That's what the world is made of. Decaying things, packed together. It was nice. I made it to the top of one hill and there was another, and another, and another. I'd gone too far to turn back, and my GPS was telling me I was slowly progressing in the right direction. The hills were steep; like I said, off-track, and I basically just had to charge directly upwards, clinging to bushes.\r\n\r\nIt doesn't seem to matter where I go, I will always ultimately end up scrabbling up hills through undergrowth.\r\n\r\nIt was *such* a relief when the track/settlement I could see on google maps appeared over the hill. I made for the highway, cos there was no way trying to go through the park all the way back was a good idea. The verge was such that I could stay off the road, so I followed the highway for about 20 minutes before I was picked up by a local. He didn't speak English but I think we managed to communicate a bit. I was passed by loads of cars that didn't stop this time; I presume they were tourists. Bah.\r\n\r\nHe dropped me in the centre of Korenica, and I stumbled back to the hostel and collapsed for a bit, by 4pm.\r\n\r\nI walked around 18 miles today. My legs, aside from being extremely reluctant to support me, have developed all kinds of interesting enormous red lumps with varying degrees of itchiness. I assumed they were insect bites (they have been developing for several days now) but some of them are going a bit weird. I should probably at least document it...\r\n\r\nAlso I should sleep... 0625 bus to Zagreb in the morning!","as:actor":{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/about#me"},"as:content":"
Last night I arrived in Korenica (the bus showed up 35 minutes late; 84 kuna, somehow arrived on time 2 hours later, really spectacular mountain scenery), and successfully navigated to Falling Lakes hostel. I thought Tchaikovsky in Split was the best, but Falling Lakes is even nicer. Croatia could really teach the world a thing or two about how to do hostels. I was greeted by Irena, who helped me figure out buses and gave me a ton of advice about how to explore Plitvice. The hostel has a lovely kitchen, plus fresh herbs in the garden, so I immediately went to Konzum to get things I could cook. The hostel is so nice and I was dreading the rush of picking up my rucksack and catchign the bus to Zagreb after walking all day. Then suddenly I realised I could just book another night in Korenica and go to Zagreb in the morning. My host in Zagreb was happy with the change of plan, and suddenly that was a weight off.
\r\nI didn't get up quite as early as I'd planned, but still early enough that I didn't want to wait for the official (35 kuna) hostel ride to Plitvice. It's about a 15 minute drive, and the highway is not safe to walk on, with no footpaths, sometimes steep banks, many trucks and everyone going really fast. But I hadn't even made it out of Korenica before I was picked up by a middle aged couple from Zagreb who were very interested in all of my travel. They dropped me at Gate 1 at 0900, which threw off my well thought out agenda that began at Gate 2.
\r\nEntrance to the park is 80 kuna with a student card, and the ticket includes one boat ride and one mini-bus-thing ride. Maps are 20 kuna, but fortunately Irena gave me one at the hostel. I did some dynamic replanning, figured there was no way I wasn't going to have to cover a stretch twice if I wanted to leave from Gate 2, and headed for the boat. This was supposed to be the last thing, and I considered walking the length of the lake and getting the boat for the repeat of that later, but then it arrived, so I hopped on. I'm really glad I did, because when I went past again later there were three boats worth of people waiting. That took me to near Gate 2, and the start of the main bit of world-famous multi-tiered waterfalls. I followed the path.
\r\nI could have done with learning a few Japanese phrases, like "if you must walk this slowly at least stop zigzagging", "this walkway is too narrow for you to stop and look at every little thing" and "put that selfie stick away you're going to have someone's eye out". There were a lot of elderly Japanese tourists who walked very slowly and had no regard for the high risk of sending people flying into the waterfalls when they stopped suddenly and started brandishing cameras. Sigh.
\r\nThe waterfalls were impressive and everything, but I had a bit of human overload. Not just the tourists (I know they were all there for the same reason I was), but the work that had gone into making the surroundings traverseable. The walkways were all wooden, and very tasteful; often stretching across whole lakes, low to the water, or steps directly above a waterfall so you were always really close.
\r\n\r\nI couldn't help wondering what this place would be like without the intervention. How many of the waterfalls and streams were actually there as a result of some footpath sculpting? I enjoyed more when the walkways were flooded and the water was trying to take back its space.
\r\n\r\nFollowing Irena's advice, I took a less-trodden trail, from point 1 to point 3 (purple on the map) which led deeper into the woods of the park, away from the main area. I'd have loved to go via point 2, which goes way into the park through small settlements that are still occupied, but I didn't think I had time for the full 24km. I was soon deep in peaceful woods, and saw only two other hikers the whole time. That's more like it. I started to recharge. The trail was well-marked with little read dots on trees, so I could drift. After the intial excitement of interesting mushrooms and rocks, and dappled sunlight, the woods were pretty samey. I love the woods, and it gave me lots of thinking time. I was hankering to work on indieweb and socialwg stuff.
\r\nThe route took me back to the park, and in a lot less time than I expected. I was back at the Big Waterfall, not far from where I started, at 1430. This time I walked around the eastmost side of the lake, close to the water, to Gate 2. That didn't take long either, and I didn't feel I could just go back so early. I sat for a bit, and then wandered south. I decided to see how far I could get in the direction of Korenica without going back to the highway. Technically the park goes all the way, but I had no terrain information. I ploughed on over a definitely-off-track hill. The ground was leaves and squish and the trees were close and I had to fight through them. The ground though! That's what the world is made of. Decaying things, packed together. It was nice. I made it to the top of one hill and there was another, and another, and another. I'd gone too far to turn back, and my GPS was telling me I was slowly progressing in the right direction. The hills were steep; like I said, off-track, and I basically just had to charge directly upwards, clinging to bushes.
\r\nIt doesn't seem to matter where I go, I will always ultimately end up scrabbling up hills through undergrowth.
\r\nIt was such a relief when the track/settlement I could see on google maps appeared over the hill. I made for the highway, cos there was no way trying to go through the park all the way back was a good idea. The verge was such that I could stay off the road, so I followed the highway for about 20 minutes before I was picked up by a local. He didn't speak English but I think we managed to communicate a bit. I was passed by loads of cars that didn't stop this time; I presume they were tourists. Bah.
\r\nHe dropped me in the centre of Korenica, and I stumbled back to the hostel and collapsed for a bit, by 4pm.
\r\nI walked around 18 miles today. My legs, aside from being extremely reluctant to support me, have developed all kinds of interesting enormous red lumps with varying degrees of itchiness. I assumed they were insect bites (they have been developing for several days now) but some of them are going a bit weird. I should probably at least document it...
\r\nAlso I should sleep... 0625 bus to Zagreb in the morning!
","as:name":"Falls, lakes, and my feet hurt","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2015-05-28T21:14:00+0100"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/croatia"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/hiking"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/hitchiking"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/hostel"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/korenica"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/lakes"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/national+park"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/plitvice"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/travel"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/waterfall"}]},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2016/12/dripping","@type":"as:Article","as:content":"Yesterday I went to Penang National Park, and got three kinds of wet.
\r\n\r\nI took the 101 bus from KOMTAR. For 3.40 RM it took about 50 minutes to get to the National Park entrance, which is the last stop. I had to wait in line to register for at least 30 minutes. There are separate lines for Malaysian and foreigners; don't stand in the wrong one. I was unfortunate enough to be stuck behind a large group of Chinese tourists. Entry to the park is free, but you have to register your name and passport number, and in exchange for this they give you a permit to enter the park (a piece of paper with a hard-to-read map and stamp on it). This permit was checked once by a member of park staff later in the afternoon. I'm not sure if this was protocol or if he was just trying to make conversation. So probably best not to try to skip this process, even though you could technically bypass the registration desk to get to the park entrance fairly easily.
\r\n\r\nI hiked from the park entrance to Pantai Kerachut (Turtle Beach). This took about 2 hours including looping around the meromictic lake twice and climbing an unnecessary hill by accident, and stopping for a snack break. The jungle is thick outside of the marked trail, and set against a backdrop of a non-stop high pitched whistling sound. I don't know if it is birds or insects. I also saw big ant trails, which is always cool.
\r\n\r\nThe meromictic lake is one of only a few in the world, and is interesting because it contains both freshwater and seawater, which don't mix; the latter floats on top of the former. Except most of the year it's basically dry, so there wasn't much to see.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThere were a handful of people at Turtle Beach, and a very small handful of turtles in the sanctuary. It was pretty peaceful, and good places to hang hammocks, and a nice view. There are no facilities (food for sale or anything), and also no swimming due to big waves and venemous jellyfish.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFrom Turtle Beach I hiked to Teluk Kampi, which earlier some Asian businessmen (that's what they looked like) shouted out was the \"best beach in Penang!\". It was over a massive hill that never seemed to end, and took about 45 minutes from Turtle Beach. There was nobody there though, except the beach guard who checked my park permit. It's the longest beach in the park, and very picturesque. There is a 'hall' - an open-sided wooden structure - on the seafront. I couldn't help but notice that its beams looked perfect for hammock hanging, and one of them had a power outlet... So this can be my new office? A 3 hour hike through the jungle is a reasonable commute, right?
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nI napped in the sun for a short while to recharge for hiking back. I was thoroughly soaked in sweat, but no swimming due to jellyfish here, too. The beach guard said he could call a boat to return to the park entrance, but that it would be about 120 RM. I did not have 120 RM.
\r\n\r\nHowever, a short while later came cries of \"help!\" from a guy in a boat approaching the beach. A surefire way to get someone's attention... He wasn't actually in trouble. He offered to take me to Monkey Beach for 25 RM. Seemed like a bargain. I wasn't expecting to have time to make it to Monkey Beach, either.
\r\n\r\nSo I grabbed my stuff, ploughed into the sea in my trainers (oops) and boarded the boat. Turns out he'd been chartered by some Chinese people who were having a break at Turtle Beach, so he'd whisked this one Portguese guy around the coast to see Teluk Kampi; any additional passengers he could pick up for nominal fees was a bonus.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWe picked up the Chinese people at Turtle Beach, then continued to Teluk Duyung (Monkey Beach). This was a lot more crowded, with vendors selling drinks, coconuts and snacks. There was also a lot more trash and it was generally not as nice. I bought and consumed a fresh coconut for 5 RM, and took this photo which has been great for taunting people on the other side of the world who are currently shovelling snow.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThen I bumped into E and K; previous tentants of my current AirBnB whom I'd had dinner with, along with my host, the evening before. We all swam in the sea and chatted for a while. The sea was pretty grim, murky, and made my skin itch. I think the itching was actually due to temperature change but... who knows. Not my favourite.
\r\n\r\nI was planning to hike back around the coast to the park entrance from Monkey Beach, one of the popular trails that should take about an hour. But E and K wanted to take a boat, and as we were discussing it looming storm clouds turned into smattering rain. We canvassed the beach for other people to share a boat with (they're typically a standard 40 RM between Monkey Beach and the park entrance, no matter how many people you take). As the rain got heavier the tourists dissipated. We found a guy willing to take four of us for 30 RM after a little bargaining. The rain was pelting down by the time we boarded the boat, and there was thunder and lightning.
\r\n\r\nSo I was soaked afresh by seawater from the waves splashing into the boat, and rainwater from the sky. We reached the jetty and raced for cover.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAfter hanging out for a bit, and ringing out our clothes/shoes/hair, it didn't look like it was going to let up, so we raced to the bus stop in time to jump on. For some reason, the return 101 does not leave from the same place it drops off, but there's another bus from a different route which takes people from the park entrance to the 101 bus stop for free. It's unclear if this is out of sympathy for people in torrential downpours, or all the time. E and K said they'd taken it last time they visited the park too.
\r\n\r\nWe transferred to the 101, which was naturally air-conditioned to arctic levels. For just under an hour, as we were soaking wet, this was highly unpleasant. Fortunately on the return route it stops right outside my apartment (due to one way streets, the outward bus stop is a little further away). It had stopped raining by then, but I darted home and into a hot shower. It took me a while to warm up.
\r\n\r\nShockingly, I only have one new mosquito bite to show for all of this.
\r\n\r\nHere's my RunKeeper trace of the hiking and boat rides.
","as:generator":{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/sloph"},"as:name":"Dripping (Penang National Park)","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime","@value":"2016-12-19T15:53:00+08:00"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/beach"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/boat"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/hiking"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/jungle"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/malaysia"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/national+park"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/penang"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/sea"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/swimming"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/travel"}]},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2016/12/gurney-drive-and-penang-hill","@type":"as:Article","as:content":"I spent the last few days hanging out by myself, or with friends I just met. I've wandered around George Town a little more with P and A. MM (Malaysian Mum) took us all for steamboat at MamaVege on Saturday (24th): We ordered two kinds of soup, which are served in bubbling pot on a hot plate built into the table. Plus a selection of vegetables, not-meats, and noodles, which we drop into the soup and watch simmer.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThen I wandered around Gurney Drive, an area north of George Town where there are lots of fancy condos and hotels and is a common place for tourists to stay. It's a far cry from the 'heritage' of George Town, and largely malls and plazas and shiny new buildings. I thought there might be some form of beach access, but it's mostly off limits because of construction in the sea (Penang Island is all out of develop-able land). At one point I wandered down a side street in the hope it might lead to the ocean, but it turned out to lead to some guy's orchard. Just as I realised I was on someone's land and should probably leave, the owner, Bok, popped out of the bushes to say hi. He told me all about the fruits he was growing (coconut, jackfruit, various others) and that he does it for fun not profit, now that he's retired from managing a security firm. He picked a small, yellow relation to the guava (English name unknown) from a tree for me to try; it was mildly sweet and fragrant.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nI eventually made it to Straits Quay, or at least the shopping/hotel complex part of the area. There's a trail along the seafront that leads from Tanjung Bungah to Straits Quay, once you can find the way in. It runs behind a huge area of luxury villas, most of which are still under construction. It was more peaceful here than walking along the road... obviously. All of the villas have pools facing the sea. A good place to stay if you want to veg out and aren't interested in the local area or culture. I walked back along the seafront until I returned to Gurney Drive. I spent a short while in Brown Pocket, a cafe on the 6th floor of Gurney Paragon mall with big windows and great seaviews. Their wifi wasn't working though so I didn't get much done.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIt started to rain. I went upstairs two more floors to the cinema to see Rogue One. It was great. I ate at TinTin vegetarian in the basement of Gurney Plaza (the next mall along), where by chance I also found vegan coconut ice cream by Sangkaya.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nYesterday (25th) I climbed Penang Hill with P and A. We walked first to the Botanical Gardens from our apartment, which took around 45 minutes. We started our climb from the Moon Gate. The first stretch was a lot of steep steps. This turned into steep climb with fewer steps and more sliding in mud. Someone had built a tin-roof kitchen part way up the hillside, where a bunch of elderly people were cooking noodles. I don't know how they got there. Later the path skirted around the side of a hill for a while, so it was fairly level. Then down a bit, then back up to being really steep again. We crossed paths with the railway, and and met a sprightly teenager who, after borrowing P's phone to make a call, guided us the most direct route to the top, which was again sheer steps. It was pretty exhausting; she patiently waited for us. The climb took about two and a half hours.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAt the top are a few places for a good view, but not as many as expected. There's a food court (we got juice) and tons of random tourist shit like an owl museum, a toy museum, and terrible merchandise. There were loads of people (there's a train to the top from Air Itam). There's also a mosque and a Hindu temple.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAfter sitting around for a while and re-energising, we walked to Monkey Cup, a small cafe a little apart from the crowded area. There we had coffee in their garden, and enjoyed quiet jungle surroundings. I met a local scorpian. I was assured that he wasn't poisonous, and his stinger is \"just like a little ant bite\". Figured it can't be worse than Tigo. He didn't sting me, anyway.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWe wanted to take a different route down, and got directions (and a hand-drawn map) from staff at Monkey Cup. We followed a narrow concrete path winding down the hillside. At some point we missed a turning and ended up clearly bound for Air Itam, rather than back to the Botanic Gardens. Oh well. We walked through hillside farmland and enjoyed views into the central valley and across to the coastline.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIn Air Itam most restaurants were closed (between 3 and 5 is not a good time for seeking lunch in MY) but we managed to get some kway teow from a hawker stall, negotiating the exclusion of egg and prawn from mine. It started raining; we took an Uber back to George Town, because we'd walked quite far enough, and between three of us it cost the same as the bus (6 RM total).
\r\n\r\nBack home, A and I soaked in the pool for a while. Later that evening we ate at Lily's, a vegetarian restaurant close to the apartment. It was great; we shared satay, I had lam rice (rice in gravy with tofu and vegetables), and an almond jelly tofu fruit dessert. Staff were reallly really friendly, too, and the food was far lighter and less greasy than similar places.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nToday... I'm staying home, trying to write some code.
\r\n","as:generator":{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/sloph"},"as:name":"Gurney Drive and Penang Hill","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime","@value":"2016-12-26T12:45:00+08:00"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/air+itam"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/food"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/gurney+drive"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/hiking"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/malaysia"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/penang+hill"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/penang"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/travel"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/vegan"}]},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2016/12/penang-hikes","@type":"as:Add","as:generator":{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/sloph"},"as:object":{"@id":"http://penanghikes.com/"},"as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime","@value":"2016-12-20T18:45:00+08:00"},"as:summary":"Amy added http://penanghikes.com/ to https://rhiaro.co.uk/bookmarks/","as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/hiking"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/malaysia"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/penang"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/travel"}],"as:target":{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/bookmarks/"}},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2017/01/pee-on-it","@type":"as:Article","as:content":"I had a vague plan of hiking from the Botanical Gardens to Batu Ferringhi. I found a trail from Batu Ferringhi which claimed to connect to a road to the Botanical Gardens, so I figured how hard could it it to be to reverse engineer it? So I met a bunch of my new energetic vegan yogi friends in the Botanical Gardens at 8am, and we wandered around a bit before embarking up Penang Hill, which all trails seem to lead to.
\r\n\r\nAbout half way up Penang Hill we saw this dilapidated and entirely unreliable sign to Batu Ferringhi. We decided not to follow it, and instead carried on to the top of Penang Hill, as nobody else I was with had been up before.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWe had been following the jeep track, but diverged onto a muddy trail when we found one. This was the route I took last time, when I started at the Moon Gate. Starting by the jeep track is much faster, though far less interesting in terms of terrain. At the top I had cendol (twice the price of at the bottom..) and the far more experienced yogis than I piled up a bit, for a fascinated audience of tourists and locals alike.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe beach was calling, so we decided to charge back to the Botanical Gardens as fast as we could, pick up T's car, and drive to Batu Ferringhi. Close enough, right? About one quarter of the way down the hill an unsmiling chap offered us a ride in the back of his truck. We accepted, enjoyed the bouncing rollarcoaster ride, and cut about 45 minutes of our journey.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWe drove to Batu Ferringhi, and chilled on the beach opposite the Tropical Spice Garden. It had been overcast for most of the hike (good) but the sun was emerging while we were at the beach. It was hot, anyway. I lounged around in the sun for a while, then relocated to lounging around in the shallows of the sea. Lying on the sand, letting the waves wash over me was thoroughly tranquil. The sand at this beach was great, too. Big grains, so they weren't annoying and sticky like normal sand. As it moved around underneath me due to the waves, it felt like a body-scrub massage.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nI went in deeper to float a bit for a while. It wasn't long before stabbing pains in my leg propelled me back to shore. Jellyfish alert! \"Pee on it\" said everyone. T went to warn an elderly man who was playing in the sea with his young grandaughters. \"Pee on it!\" they said in Mandarin. Another passer by stopped to see what the fuss was about. He also said \"pee on it\" in Mandarin. I didn't retain how to say \"pee on it\" in Mandarin, but I should ask T and add that to my repertoire of useful foreign phrases.
\r\n\r\nMy leg went red and bubbled up in a couple of places. It felt like it was burning. It wasn't unbearable pain, but coupled with a probably-sun-induced headache I had I felt pretty crap. My understanding friends got dressed and we all piled back into the car to find a pharmacy. My headache worsened and the car ride escalated everything. By the time I was home I was in full migraine mode and had thrown up a couple of times. On the way, C helped me buy rehydration sachets and Tiger Balm, so when I got in drank loads of water and then slept for 14 hours. I was skeptical about the medicinal properties of Tiger Balm, but I applied to to my head, shoulders (hiking/backpack aches), and jellyfish wounds and everything seems to be magically better.
\r\n\r\nI'm disappointed that this day didn't end with us all checking out a new vegan restaurant, but I'm grateful to have met wonderful people who looked after me. Better luck next time.
\r\n\r\n","as:generator":{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/sloph"},"as:name":"Pee on it: Penang Hill, Batu Ferringhi, and a close encounter with a jellyfish","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime","@value":"2017-01-24T13:30:00+08:00"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/batu+ferringhi"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/beach"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/health"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/hiking"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/life"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/penang+hill"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/penang"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/travel"}]},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2017/02/air-itam-to-balik-pulau","@type":"as:Article","as:content":"For some time now I've been wanting to hike from Air Itam to Balik Pulau (which literally translates as 'the other side of the island'). We finally got around to it on Monday: GJ and H, and Tammy and Jon from Wholey Wonder.
\r\n\r\nWe started our journey at Purple Stone Vegetarian Food Center in Air Itam, around 8am. We ate loads of delicious and extremely cheap things to set us up for the day. A selection of bao to share, some people at the buffet, and I had won ton mee. I was delighted to be able to get a nasi lemak parcel. They sell the normal versions everywhere on street corners for between 0.50 and 1.50 rm, but they contain anchovies and egg. The little triangular parcels are so enticing, so I was happy to get a veggie one (containing peanuts, veggie sambal and a little mock meat) for the road.
\r\n\r\nTammy and Jon moved their car (with us in it) to the top of Kek Lok Si where there's cheap parking. We walked down a bit to find the start of the hiking route. It was blocked by a police barricade, and we were told there was a landslide and no way through to the Dam.
\r\n\r\nNot the type of people to let a little landslide derail our plans, we walked to the road that goes around to the other side of the Dam to see if we'd have better luck there. It wasn't long before we were distracted by a trail into the jungle, and we left the road. This trail rapidly deteriorated until we found ourselves fairly stuck on a hillside. After a few false scrambles, Tammy noticed a trail of paper triangles stapled to various leaves and trees, so... we followed it. And followed it. And followed it. We climbed, sliding through the mud, clinging to trees, clawing at roots. Some of the trees have spikes growing out of their trunks; I grabbed them once or twice. We chatted about snakes and monsters. It was tenuous at times, but finally whoever laid the trail of paper triangles came through, and we made it back to the road. But not the road we started from... the road we had been blocked from heading down originally. We continued along it and ran into no more problems, which I suppose means we managed to clamber around the landslide somehow.
\r\n\r\nThe next landmark was the Air Itam Dam and reservoir. We walked clockwise around, stopping at a couple of Chinese temples on the way, until we reached a fork. We took the left track, and proceeded west. After this point it was mostly a gentle downhill slope. We proceeded through plantations of herbs and fruit (spotting bananas, papaya, and jackfruit, amongst others), and got some amazing views over parts of the island I haven't seen before.
\r\n\r\nIt took us about two and a half hours to reach the start of Balik Pulau. We walked for another hour, seeking Chin Choo vegetarian, which I had on my map. Alas, it wasn't there. At least we tried. There's a little history in Balik Pulau, but it's a very small town so not a lot to see. We decided the beach was too far to continue walking to, as the others wanted to do other things with the rest of their day.
\r\n\r\nWe took the bus back to Air Itam, and then drove to Janxden near Gelugor for a late lunch.
\r\n\r\nPhotos from the hike and GPS trace.
","as:generator":{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/sloph"},"as:name":"Air Itam to Balik Pulau","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime","@value":"2017-02-06T19:00:00+08:00"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/air+itam"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/balik+pulau"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/hiking"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/justgo"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/penang"}]},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2017/02/penang-hill-forest-challenge","@type":"as:Article","as:content":"Today bengo and I inadvertently hiked the Penang Hill Forest Challenge ('the longest trail in Penang'). I had pieced together two other hiking trails and filled a gap in the middle, but it turns out that if you do this from the other end, it has an official name. Here is the GPS trace.
\r\n\r\nAnyway, we started from home, and walked to the Botanical Gardens (about an hour). We took the 1500 steps route up Penang Hill, using Path A to reach the top (about 2.5 hours) where we relaxed with fruit and fruit juice for a while.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWe walked along Summit Road to Western Hill. There's a trail on the left going down, after about 20 minutes. We first missed it and continued down the road, which quickly became signposted as private property. We backtracked; the actual trial is pretty well signposted.
\r\n\r\nFrom there there was lots of climbing - up and down - supported by a rope most of the way. Lots. Of. Climbing. And another hill. Then some more climbing. Oh look another hill. And a vertical slope. And some scrambling. And another hill. And so on. We encountered only 3 other groups of hikers on the way. There were a few points for nice views, but mostly trees. And hills. And another hill. But just because I was cursing every step doesn't mean I wasn't having fun.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n4 hours later, the beautiful sight of local families splashing in pools nearby the Teluk Bahang Dam welcomed us. We dived in and sat in small waterfalls until our legs came back. The pools are in a nice park, which also houses the Forestry Museum. It was very peaceful.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOnce we'd recovered, we walked up the road to see the Dam and reservoir. Then we backed up and followed the road to Teluk Bahang village. We stuck our thumbs out but nobody stopped.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWe forged ahead to the beach, and immediately encountered Cat Beach - a cat shelter on a small, beautiful, secluded beach. Run by volunteers, in exchange for housing. I paddled, and hung out with the cats for a while. I think I see... my future.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWe stopped for vegetable fried rice at a small stall, then caught the 101 bus home.
\r\n\r\n","as:generator":{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/sloph"},"as:name":"Penang Hill Forest Challenge","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime","@value":"2017-02-17T21:30:00+08:00"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/beach"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/hiking"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/malaysia"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/penang"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/travel"}]},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2017/08/week-in-review-2","@type":"as:Article","as:content":"Syros is small enough to hike across its width and back in a day, with time to hang around in the middle, if you start early. I didn't go there and back yesterday though, instead spending some extra time to explore the western side of the island more. Here's the GPS trace on Runkeeper.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nI started from Lazarate, and headed around the back of Ermoupoli, up the hills until it was mostly fields, with a few scattered houses. Great views over Ermoupoli, Ano Syros, and the bay the whole way. I reached the village of Episkopio and left the main road to pick up the hiking trail. At the start of the trail I met a tiny cerberus.. or.. three medium sized barking dogs who were neither tied up nor behind a fence. Unequipped for battling mythological monsters that day, I backed up, retreated all the way to the turn-off to Alithini, and continued along the main road instead. This was a bit longer, basically going around the other side of the hill to the hiking trail (the east side rather than west), and probably less nice terrain but also goes a bit higher and provides continuing specatcular views of Ermoupoli and the sea, and at the peak in a small spot you can see the sea in both directions at once.
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\r\n\r\nThen the descent began, with a view of Kini and its bay the whole way. There are some spectacular rock formations, and lots of quartz and glittering stones in the ground. I managed to get off the main road for the final descent to the village, after spotting some stairs and a small sign to the right.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIt took 2 hours to walk from Ermoupoli to Kini, with the diversion. I wandered around Kini, which was quiet but not deserted. Feels more like a summer-town though. The beach is nice, and there's a pier with steps straight into the sea for swimming. I couldn't find the bus stop, so asked someone who told me it's by the mermaid fountain. There's no sign there, and she didn't know the schedule. But I had plenty of time before the probable last bus, and it wasn't too far to walk back if I missed it anyway.
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\r\n\r\nThe trail to Delphini, just around the coast to the north, takes about 30 minutes and is not for the faint of heart. To find the start, follow the beach around to the north, along the road a bit and up the last stone steps you can see, past a small house. From there it's just a narrow dirt path through the gorse that creeps veeery close to a sheer drop to the sea and jagged rocks below in some places. It was really beautiful of course, with deep green-blue sea.
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\r\n\r\nDelphini seemed empty. There's a beach bar (closed), and a few houses which are probably summer rentals. Delphini beach was described to me as 'wild', but I read somewhere that the next beach over, Varvaroussa, is truely untouched, so I continued on.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe trail to Varvaroussa starts just up the hill from the beach bar (there's a lower down trail that doesn't go all the way). This was high up the side of the cliff too, but a more gentle slope down so you wouldn't get thrown directly into the ocean if a big gust of wind came, but roll through the gorse a bit.. That is until you get past the big sticky-out bit, and around to the next bay, with Varvaroussa in view. Then it's a challenging rocky scramble, over a trail that would be impossible to see without the helpful presence of red dots painted on rocks at intervals. The red dots could also be a practical joke to lure gullible hikers to their doom. I made it though, in about 35 minutes, so I assume they were done with good intentions.
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\r\n\r\nVarvaroussa is not attached to the rest of the world by road; the only way there from any direction is scrambling over the hills, so it really is wild. Looking back at the direction I'd come, there was no clear route in or out. There were a couple of old abandoned-looking stone houses in the hillside, and the rambling stone walls you see everywhere, but nothing else. I sat alone, cut off from the world; ate my lunch, went for a swim. The sun was warm, but it was also windy despite the sheltered feeling of the bay so the sea wasn't especially calm and pretty bloody cold. I didn't swim long.
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\r\n\r\nI packed up and returned the way I'd come, because there's pretty much no other option. The first few minutes was a direct, almost vertical climb, guided by red dots, that felt much steeper going up than it had coming down. From Delphini I took the road back to Kini, for a change of scene. I asked after the bus schedule in cafe Aepiko, and they looked it up online for me; the next and last bus to Ermoupoli was at 17.20, about 2 hours time. I stayed for a coffee and split pea hummus.
\r\n\r\nAt the bus stop, I made some catfriends and watched the sun set. Kini is famous (apparently) for its stunning beach sunsets, but in the winter the angle is a bit off and it dips behind a hill instead of into the ocean.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAt 1725 there was still no bus and I was starting to feel the cold. And my legs hurt. I no longer fancied walking the return journey. Then the waiter from the cafe drove past, and stopped. He was heading back to Ano Syros, and offered me a ride. Sometimes I really wonder when my continuous good fortune while traveling will run out. (We passed the bus after 5 minutes though.)
\r\n\r\nI had to haul myself back up the hill to Lazarate though, and when I got home my knees and hips were insisting I'd walked 20 miles, not 11. Maybe it was the steep climbs, or maybe because I haven't hiked for 2 weeks, or maybe I'm just getting old.
\r\n\r\nThe rest of the photos are here.
","as:name":"Hiking from Ermoupoli to Kini (Syros)","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime","@value":"2019-01-29T22:13:00+02:00"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/hiking"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/travel"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/greece"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/syros"}]},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2019/02/week-in-review","@type":"as:Article","as:content":"